English IPA lookup and text annotator

Check one word, or add pronunciation to a short passage. This is a small reviewed General American lexicon: it shows what it knows and marks every other word with a question mark instead of guessing.

Your text stays in this browser. Lookup and annotation run on this page. Text is not submitted to the server, saved, translated, sent to speech services or added to analytics.

Look up one word

The lookup contains 583 reviewed headwords, plus regular endings derived only from a known base word.

Annotate a short passage

Maximum 1,200 characters

What the tool promises

A documented accent, not a mixed dictionary

The transcriptions use the same broad General American conventions as this site's sound chart: pronounced r in words such as car, /ɑː/ in stop, and /ɚ/ in an unstressed ending such as teacher. Other English accents can be equally correct.

Alternatives when spelling is not enough

Words such as read, record and wind have more than one pronunciation. The tool shows labelled alternatives. It does not pretend to understand the sentence and silently choose one.

Unknown means unknown

English spelling cannot reliably predict pronunciation: compare though, through and thought. A question mark means this small lexicon does not support that word. Regular -s, -ed and -ing forms are added only when the base word is already known.

Pronunciation data and limits

The common-word layer is a bounded conversion of the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary snapshot reviewed on 15 October 2026 (SHA-256 81917843C7F44CE2B094AC63873C2C7A4CF802040792C455BA3CA406891C3D22). Existing pronunciations independently reviewed for this site's sound chart and minimal-pair activity take priority. Known homographs were checked and labelled separately.

This is broad phonemic IPA: it shows word-level contrasts, not every detail of connected speech or every regional and personal variant. It is a pronunciation lookup, not a definition or translation service.

CMUdict is Copyright © 1993–2015 Carnegie Mellon University and contributors. Read its licence and disclaimer.

Keep learning

Use the sound chart to learn an unfamiliar symbol, then practise contrasts such as ship and sheep or read the guide to word stress.